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Friday, August 26, 2016

Reviewing "King Arthur: History and Legend" Great Course

From its earliest days to our contemporary
epoch, the Arthurian legend and its manifold characters, scenarios, and
variations has truly stood the test of time. Today, it is not uncommon to see a
plethora of commodities based off of the Arthurian legend—from Rountable pizza
to King Arthur’s flour—indicating that the legend has not only been maintained
but commoditized. Artistically, writers from the medieval to the modern have
reworked Arthurian material to better help them understand their epoch. Truly,
if there is one thing that we can say about King Arthur it is this—he has been
a figure of trans-historical importance the world over.

But
with a tradition so large and formidable, with literally hundred-of-thousands
of texts, how is one supposed to separate what is worth reading from what is
not? How is one to find those classical texts which any aspiring scholar need
study? Furthermore, how to simply chart and get the basics facts and then some
when so many writers have done so many different things with the tradition in
so many different languages? Professor Dorsey Armstrong answers all of these
questions and more.

Hosted
by The Great Courses, Armstrong’s contribution King Arthur: History and Legend, covers the whole Arthurian gamut.
From the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain to the modern Hollywood films,
Armstrong tackles the entire canon is a series of twenty-four, thirty-minute
lectures.

What
I found most handy while listening to each course was its emphasis on
cornerstone details. Obviously, with a legend was rich as King Arthur, one
could spend far longer on each lesson than a mere thirty-minutes. But Armstrong
makes each lesson work: though short, they hit on all of the strong points
without sacrificing nuance; you enter a session, learn the essential, and are
encouraged to branch out on your own after the conclusion. So in this sense it
is much like a university: you enroll in a course, attend lecture, and then are
expected to uptake your own study independent of the course in order to get the
full experience. Armstrong’s erudition is testament to how well one learns even
should one decide to not uptake an independent study and merely listen to the course.

Personally,
I found the course most handy in separating Arthurian fact and fiction. My
secondary enjoyment was Armstrong’s charting out of the interconnectedness of
the series of adaptations which were produced by medieval writers. Together,
both of these facets of the course helped me in gaining a bird’s eye view of
the legend and know who wrote what, and for what reason, and who adapted those
writings for similar reason and how all of this influenced future generations,
and for what reasons.

Prior
to this lesson I was unsure of what I was to expect from a study of the
Arthurian legend. I knew that it was an extensive field of study but I did not
know to what end it was extensive. After completing Armstrong’s course,
however, I know that the legend is far more convoluted than I had previously
imagined. Truly, one is not doing one’s self any good unless a handy guide,
like Armstrong’s course, is purchased. There is so many adaptations of
adaptations that the nuance and rationale behind each version will quickly be
lost should one try and wade into this field without the proper precautions.

In
the end, I loved this course: it helped me appreciated the Arthurian legend in
a whole new light and gave me appreciation for how and why it was adapted. It
cut away the darkness of the newcomer’s confusion and helped shed some light on
where to begin. I would be remiss if I did not give this course a five out of
five.

King
Arthur: History and Legend (The Great Courses)

Dorsey
Armstrong

12:01:01
hours. Published by The Great Courses and Audible; Narrated by Dorsey
Armstrong.